Classic neighborhood day

I had to get Cam away from the Wii this morning, but once he was out, he decided to invite a neighborhood kid over to play. This kid is such a sweetie and the two boys got along really well. This friend is more than a year younger than Cam but that didn't seem to matter at all. It was nice to see Cam play with a neighbor nicely. There's another kid nearby who just doesn't mix well with Cam. It was good to see that Cam can play with a neighbor without someone breaking out into high level anger.

Cam ended up playing with the other kid for a short time this afternoon as well. It was short enough to prevent a lot of screaming.

But all in all, it was a classic neighborhood day. You have to push to get our neighborhood to flow socially. We live on a rolling hill street. There's enough privacy in our yards that you can seclude yourself in the backyard and not seek out friends. So you really need to get out and say hello to encourage social stuff. I'm not comfortable letting Cam wander around in the neighborhood on his own yet. I know that's crazy, but I'm like that.

By the way. The out of control protests at dinner continue. Tonight's freak out was over corn on the cob. At some point, I told Cam he was going to eat it when he yelled: "No I ain't!"

No I ain't?

Woah. That's not going to work under my roof.

By the way. While Cam was freaking out, Jordan was eating her corn and declaring: "I eat it. I like it."

Hmmm. Interesting strategy.

I came home prepared to do battle over dinner. I was ready because I wanted to cook up one of my favorite meals: Sea scallops sauteed with shallots and portobello mushrooms and risotto. I was in the mood to eat a real dinner on a work night... Even if it meant the baby was going to bed late.

I was almost done cooking when my parents called. I was almost fully done cooking when Cam started whining about the food. I immediately told him to stop whining. I wouldn't have another night of whining over food or he could go to bed. Moments later as I was spooning food out, Cam arrives in the kitchen in his pajamas telling me good night. Oh really? Okay. He came down once after that to say good night to Dad when he got home from work. But that was it. He went to bed. Even though I told him he'd have scallops for breakfast. Going to bed won't get him away from eating dinner. But this is an interesting development.

Great day

The day didn't start well... With the pea incident. But overall, it was great. We got up, battled over peas and then played outside while Jordan took a little nap. Chalk drawing is a big activity at the house lately. Today Cam drew a pink Darth Vader with a white torso that was throwing pink fire. I drew a rainbow that had Cam and his friend Camryn standing under it. I gave Cam a smile which he exclaimed looked like he had lipstick on. Picky picky picky.

After lunch and a nap for both kids (and mommy), we headed out to a nearby water fountain. Cam likes to run around it. Then I got this awesome idea that we should get ice cream cones and then walk to a nearby garden. There was this place nearby that sold ice cream and snacks... But when we walked in there, things looked different from the last time I was there almost 2 years ago: No ice cream. Yup. The place didn't sell ice cream and snacks, just snacks. Luckily, there was a grocery store nearby and I bought a box of little ice cream cones... To make it even more exciting, it was supposed to be Incredibles ice cream cones. So we took our box of ice cream cones to the garden, gobbled it down with quite a mess. And we just played outside. It was awesome. Cam got to have even more fun when we saw a friend from school there. They ran around while his friend's mom and I stressed about elementary school plans. It really is more stressful than I expected.

After the big garden/ice cream fun, Cam rotated between running in the back yard and coloring a race track on multiple pieces of paper while I prepared dinner. Yes, I had vegetables in our meal: Chicken burritos with hidden mushrooms and red and green peppers amongst the cheese and chicken. The hiding never works. And after a number of dramatic attempts, Cam ate a tiny bit of red pepper. It included very dramatic gagging. But he didn't want to eat it at breakfast tomorrow, so at least he tried a new vegetable. By the way, the mom of Cam's school friend told me how she gets a report about lunch every day including how Cam ate one pea or one bean. That's how dramatic my boy has become about vegetables. Even the other kids need to talk about it at home.

I got the girl off to bed, then Cam and I played "basketball" in the backyard, talked to neighbors, got him in the bath (after much protest), read him a book and got him into bed. I asked him to clean up some of the billion books that cover his bedroom floor before waking me up in the morning. Hopefully that plea works. His room really is a disaster zone.

Anyway. The great weather gave us a chance to chat with many neighbors. We got to hang out for HOURS outside... And the boy seemed happy most of the day. It was nice.

One other thing, after saying his prayers tonight, Cam asked me why he prays for himself... Ever since he could say a prayer, he has always ended it: "And God bless Cameron Lee Reeves, Amen." I never encouraged or started this -- it was his creation. I told him that I didn't know why, it was his thing. So he announced that he won't do that ever again. If that's the case, I'm kind of sad. It was very cute.

New hope

For the last almost two years, getting Cameron to eat healthy has been a struggle. This past year, he took to crying about vegetables on his plate. This week, things started to change.

It all started when someone in his class convinced him to eat "two halves of a pea." Yup. He ate a pea. One. And it took two swallows to finish it. But he started saying how much he LOVES vegetables. So the attitude was changing. So at dinner, he'd eat one, maybe two for dessert. But then I talked him into eating five so he could watch a show on TV.

It was amazing.

But what was extra funny was watching him eat those peas. He didn't really eat them. He swallowed them like pills. One at a time, drinking A LOT of water. But you know what? I think it gives us new hope in the vegetable world.

I have to say as a former vegetarian, it's killed me watching my boy who won't even eat corn or a simple bean... Let alone the extra yummy stuff that I can splurge on (like asparagus and artichokes).

Valentines Love

Valentines Love for Cameron
Originally uploaded by Jen.

Cam woke up at 6am this morning because he was so darn excited about Valentine's Day. I gave him my homemade Valentine, baked biscuits for breakfast and had doughnuts with him (and Jordan) at school. Every single thing set him into crying fits early in the day -- A standard sign that he's overwhelmed with his expectations for the moment. By the time I got to school this afternoon for the school party, he seemed okay.

He also officially made it through 5 straight dinners without crying about vegetables or any other silly thing. Hooray. So now he has a chance to watch the original Charlotte's Web animated movie. That was his reward. He's thrilled and I'm just hoping he's quit this crying habit at the dinner table.

I'm exhausted. The combination of early rising 4 (almost 5) year old and a cranky baby has exhausted me.